Search operators

A simple search can be refined with the use of search operators. You will find below an explanation of these operators.

ANDIf two or more search criteria are linked with AND, a document will be selected only if it contains all the search criteria. AND is the standard link between multiple search criteria.

+This search operator is similar to ANDFor example, a search of Bern AND culture or Bern + culture will yield similar results for documents that contain Bern and culture in their text.

ORIf two search criteria are linked with OR, a document will be selected if one of the two search terms is contained in the text.

NOTIf NOT is placed in front of a search term, this criterion will not be present in the document retrieved. It is not possible to search with only one term that should not appear in the search results (for example NOT zürich). Therefore, the results list will be empty.

-This search operator is similar to NOTFor example the search of Bern NOT culture or Bern - culture will retrieve documents that contain Bern but not culture

" " You can search for an entire sentence or groups of words by enclosing the phrase in quotation marks: "".Only documents containing the exact sentence will appear in the search results.For example, the search for "Martha Muster" would retrieve only documents that contain exactly Martha Muster in the exact order.

*The asterisk replaces 0, one or more characters in a word. It can be used anywhere but not in the first search field position.For example, the search with Lu*a would retrieve documents containing words such as Luca, Lucia, Ludmilla, Luisa, etc.

?The question mark replaces exactly one character. It can be used anywhere but not in the first search field position.For example, the search for Me?er would retrieve documents containing words such as Meyer or Meier, etc.

~The tilde ~ operator is used to perform an imprecise or fuzzy search. By using this operator you will find documents containing words that are similar to the search criteria. What looks similar means that few characters are different. The search accuracy can be adapted by adding numbers between 0 and 1. An imprecise or fuzzy search takes much longer than an exact search.Example: The search zählen ~ 0.5 would retrieve documents containing words such as Zahl, zahlen, Anzahl, etc.

^The circumflex operator gives more importance to one of the search criteria. The weighting must be introduced with whole numbers (integers).For example, Bern culture^10

Direct access

Direct access allows to access a publication quickly using its URN or call number.

The URN is an alphanumeric code, e.g.urn:nbn:ch:bel-1246ouurn:nbn:ch:bel-1-jusletter200005087

The call number is an alphanumeric code, e.g.:bel-bau-diss69698orbel-157762ornbdig-36